Reading through the NaPo threads has prompted me to start thinking about process again. NaPo is weird, it kind of circumvents my normal process. maybe that kind of reset/refresh is what makes it so compelling too.

Normally, I write a poem in a sitting, in a few hours, and don't look back on it for a while. A few months or a year later, I might find it again and use pieces of it in a new work. The work changes and usually for the better.

Revision is not normally a part of my process. But lately, I want my work to be smooth and polished. The first draft never is. I need to make revision a part of my process more thoroughly. There's a certain maturity and cleanliness that my poetry lacks right now, and I think a lot of that is sculpted after the initial freewrite phase.

Part of writing poetry for me also includes reading. The voices of who I read come through in my work (almost too much at times). I've also noticed that - maybe due to what I'm reading - the vocabulary and themes present in my work a recurring. The last several poems I've written echo similar styles and progressions.

I guess I'm wondering about how poetry is written on this forum: in one sitting, in pieces? How long does it take? What are your surroundings like? How do you select themes? Do you plan, or does it follow a stream-of-consciousness style? Do you have goals, forms, techniques in mind?

I haven't been writing for a few years until this Napo, so it's hard to say whether my napo writing follows a usual form.

But; my process. I didn't start reading poetry, except for ya'll's, until halfway through this napo. So it's only the voices of YWO that creep into my writing.

I tend to pick up an idea or image and chew on it for a bit (anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or so) until I find something to go with it-- and then things roll from there, in one sitting, less than an hour. In a few cases, I've written something, decided that it hadn't gone where I wanted it to, and started over from the first few lines, basically putting the process on repeat until I liked it. Other than that, I don't really revise.

I have different ways of getting that idea in the first place though-- that's the hardest part, I think. Sometimes it's a scene that I want to get down, sometimes an image, sometimes a line/idea from somewhere else. And the urgency differs. Some days, there's a scene or emotion in the back of my head that I really want to express; other days, I have to go scrolling through past work to find an image that grabs me and roll from there. If I introduce form, it's usually because I'm not sure what direction to move in & want to let a form guide me.

I'm interesting in hearing how all of the rest of you do it. Especially those of you who are more productive than I am.